


Hades is a Place (and a Person)

by Melpomene_Muse_of_Tragedy



Series: Hades And Persephone AU [2]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Abduction, Abusive Relationships, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst and Tragedy, Dark Comedy, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Dream Smp, Emotional Manipulation, Enemies to Lovers, Fluff and Angst, Forced Marriage, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Inspired by Hades and Persephone (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Kidnapping, M/M, Memory Loss, Mind Control, Nudity, Rescue Missions, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-16 12:15:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28706532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melpomene_Muse_of_Tragedy/pseuds/Melpomene_Muse_of_Tragedy
Summary: "The son of Kronos. The one known by many names. He seized her against her will, put her on his golden chariot, and drove away as she wept. She cried with a piercing voice, calling upon her father Zeus, the highest and the best. But not one of the immortal ones, or of human mortals, heard her voice."- Homeric Hymn to Demeter, translated by Gregory Nagy
Relationships: Clay | Dream/TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF)
Series: Hades And Persephone AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2104254
Comments: 145
Kudos: 552





	1. Beware the River

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The problem with sequels is sometimes you get them. 
> 
> Some housekeeping before we begin; 
> 
> 1\. This is a work based on the fictional reality of Dream SMP, and does not attempt to depict the IRL personas of anyone named. At the time of writing The archive tags are unfortunately nonspecific due to tag wrangling shenanigans. 
> 
> 2\. This follow-up will be more romantically focused than its prequel and will contain more violence and sexual content. If either of those things might cause harm, please do not continue reading. Also please refrain from linking or showing my work to anyone who could be harmed by it. 
> 
> 3\. I will be using the Homeric Hymn to Demeter as my primary text for this adaptation along with select secondary sources to round out the depiction of Hades. My goal is to prioritize the themes and character of the Hymn over including all of the exact details as well as include meta-commentary. 
> 
> 4\. I've tried my best to include Minecraft's mechanics into the story where possible. However, this is a decades-old game that is constantly changing so I won't be going back to fix errors like that. 
> 
> Additionally, A03 has rolled out a new feature today that will auto-size images to mobile screens. Because of this, I may occasionally include images/screenshots to add to the verisimilitude of the story. Text descriptions will be included. 
> 
> That’s about it. Thank you and stay safe out there. Online or otherwise. 
> 
> \- Melpomene
> 
> EDIT: As of 2021-01-17 this chapter contains illustrations by monsterritory if you want to see more of his work; 
> 
> [Tumblr](https://monsterritory.tumblr.com/)  
> [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/monsterritory/)

Tommy paced from one side of the lavish bed chamber to the other. It was only day two of his forced imprisonment, and he had nearly worn a trench in the quartz floor already. 

Every few minutes, Tommy reached up and rubbed his neck self-consciously. The loose white shirt he was wearing had a much wider neck than his usual t-shirt and made from a much lighter fabric. So light, in fact, that it almost felt like he was shirtless, and the matching linen pants and lack of footwear were not helping.

He wasn't sure where the clothing he was wearing had gone, but given the deplorable state it had been in, chances were they'd landed in a ditch somewhere. 

The question that really bothered Tommy, though, was why Dream had clothing In his size lying around, and a spare guestroom without windows. 

Actually, on second thought, it wasn't worth dwelling on. 'Never ask questions you don't want to know the answers to', and all that. 

Tommy decided that the most productive thing he could do right now was also what he was also best at. Screaming really loud and being annoying. 

He charged over to the iron door, gearing himself up for another round of banging and yelling for Dream to stop being a pussy and come out to face him. Before his knuckles had even contacted the metal, he noticed that someone had pushed a note under the door while he had been getting a few fitful hours of shuteye. 

Before leaving him to stew, Dream had forced Tommy to reset his spawn, so he hadn't needed to make a show of sleeping on the floor. 

Tommy lifted the sheet of paper with a trembling hand and read the single line of text written in neat, evenly spaced letters. 

**There's a button by the door, moron.**

The teenager spluttered out a few highly offended syllables as he crumped up the note and tossed it into the corner. 

Sure enough, there was a stone button planted at eye level beside the door. Tommy could have sworn it wasn't there last night. Dream probably placed it there to make him feel stupid. Yeah, that was more likely than him being so desperately out of his mind with fear that he just hadn't seen it. Yeah… yeah... 

Tommy pressed the button, and the door popped open. He was still so shocked it worked that he missed the interval and had to press it again before leaving. 

He held it open and leaned out into a hallway that was so long that looking from one end to the other gave him vertigo. Quartz Collums lined both sides, chandeliers hung from above, and lime green carpet ran the length of the hallway.

Actually, the whole layout of the place reminded him of Buckingham Palace. One large square with multiple stories and probably a sizeable courtyard in the middle. 

Tommy inched his way out of the door, caught between his anxiety and a need to satisfy his curiosity. He picked the direction that looked like it came to a corner sooner and started walking. He passed a few more doors, opening each to glance inside. A library, a study, a kitchen, a dining room, a drawing room, all looking so pristine that Tommy felt like he was walking through the sets for a BBC period drama. 

As he neared the end of the hall, the air smelled fresher, carrying the district scent of grass and flowers. Tommy quickened his pace, climbing up a set of stairs that lead straight outside. He looked back, realizing that the whole front side of this massive base was open to the air. The roof kept going where the walls didn't. Leaving marble-white collum holding it up. 

So less like Buckingham Palace and more like… a temple… a Greek temple. 

Tommy filed that under 'things I won't be thinking too hard about'. It didn't matter anyway, because he was out! He was free! He was outside and Dream wasn't there to stop him. Tommy knew deep down that there was no way in Hades his escape was actually going to be that easy, but if he let himself dwell, he'd curl up into a ball on the ground and never get up again. 

He took a few seconds to pick a direction and headed off, putting whatever the fuck was going on firmly behind him. The journey started off rather encouraging, but when he was around thirty minutes into the hike, Tommy remembered he was starving. He hadn't eaten since before doomsday, running on nothing but the last drops of adrenaline in his system. 

Tommy looked around for something to eat. There were a few trees, but none of the kind that might drop apples. It looked like he was standing in a fairly grassy area, but no animals had spawned. He kept walking, suddenly paying a lot more attention to his surroundings. Something was wrong here. He just couldn't put his finger on it yet. 

"Totto, I have a feeling we're not in the Dream SMP anymore…" Tommy muttered under his breath. 

He walked for another fifteen minutes, through a field full of flowers. Tommy tried to name them all in his head to distract himself from the painful emptiness inside his gut. 

"Roses, crocus, violets, iris, hyacinth…"

None of these flowers should grow together, not if it was part of the natural generation. Planted in neat rows, with the bushes behind the smaller flowers. 

Then Tommy saw the fountain tucked under the cover of a prismarine gazebo. 

It was the first source of water he'd seen since leaving the temple, and he didn't think twice before he ran up to the edge and stuck his entire head into the flow. He took huge gulps of the freshwater, letting it soak through his hair. He hadn't realized how thirsty he was until the liquid hit his tongue. His mouth had been so dry he hadn't enough saliva to spit with.

Once he had his fill of water and enough time sitting on the edge catching his breath, Tommy finally realized something that should have been apparent the moment he stepped into the sun. 

"It's hot here… Way, way, too hot.." 

Tommy was wearing loose clothing and no shoes, yet he'd been perfectly comfortable temperature-wise until leaving the shade. 

A small brown head peeked out from behind a rosebush. Tommy turned just in time to see it spot him and take off, bounding away through the flowers. 

"A rabbit…" Tommy muttered. Rabbits were not very saturating, even when mixed into a proper stew, and he would need to run after them and waste more of his energy. Still, the picture of it running away lingered in his mind. It wasn't the darker brown he was used to seeing, but a much lighter, almost yellow colour. 

There was only one way for Tommy to know for sure if his hunch was correct. He got down on both knees beside the fountain and dug. He didn't have a tool or the inclination to stop to craft one, and if he was right, he wouldn't need to dig very deep at all. 

He pulled handfuls of dirt out of the little hole until his fingertips dug into grainy material just under the soil. Tommy finished clearing away the dirt and stared down at the sand block beneath. 

A desert. He was in a desert. Everything he had seen so far was nothing but a facade built on top of the sand. Like a thin layer of gold over a brass ring. No wonder nothing was spawning and the mid-day sun was cooking his pale skin to a lobster-like pallor. 

Tommy pressed a hand over his mouth and sat back, gathering his thoughts. He needed to get out of this biome if he was going to have any chance of making it back to L'Manburg… or the crater where L'Manburg used to be, at any rate.

"Come on Tom, we're a survivor we is, we've been in tight spots before. We can make it out of this and even if we don't.." 

Tommy's lips twisted into a smirk "Well it's not exactly our lives on the line, is't?"

He braced himself on the fountain and pulled himself to his feet. He wasn't as painfully hungry anymore, but he felt uncomfortably like an overfilled water balloon now that's all that was in his stomach. Still, he felt refreshed and able to start on the next leg of his journey. 

As he left, Tommy noticed a sign near the bottom right corner of the fountain.

**Lethe**

Tommy shrugged his shoulders and kept walking. 

* * *

Tommy saw the small dip in the landscape before he saw the actual water, but Tommy knew what he was looking at right away. A river, at long last. All he needed to do was build a boat, and he'd be out to sea before you could say 'Dream is dumb and smells bad'

Tommy spotted a path and naturally gravitated towards it, despite knowing it must have been something Dream put there intentionally. It led to a small wooden dock with a boat tied to a fence post on the pier. 

"Well, this is just suspicious," Tommy muttered. 

He glanced at the far shore. The river was remarkably wide. He could see the savanna on the other side, but only barely. 

This had to be some kind of trap, Tommy didn't know how, but it absolutely was. 

"Bark! Bark! Woof!" 

Tommy nearly leapt out of his skin at the sudden appearance of three dogs with matching green collars around their necks. They crowded in around him; panting, slobbering and wagging their tails. 

"Oh, hello boys," Tommy greeted them, trying to keep the apprehensive edge out of his voice. He looked at each of them, noticing that they had all been name tagged.

**'Cerberus Part 1,'**

**'Cerberus Part 2,'**

**'Cerberus Part 3,'**

Tommy signed. It was that Greek stuff again, was it? Wasn't this Technoblade's special interest not Dreams?

Dream. 

Tommy stared at the dogs. They were all on their feet, circling around him like a pack of sheepdogs trying to herd a lost lamb back to the flock. 

Unless he had picked up three dogs somehow when he wasn't looking, he wasn't the only one out here. Tommy scanned for a shimmer in the air. He wasn't holding out a lot of hope, since Dream would be smart enough to watch from a strategic position. 

That shithead had been following him the entire time, watching to see what Tommy would do if he believed he was alone. Well, the joke was on him then, because Tommy would not let his fear stand in the way. He was getting out of here or he was going to die trying. 

He pushed through the pile of good boys and sprinted over to the boat. Jumping off the dock and into the stern. The tiny wooden ship rocked violently, almost sending Tommy over the edge before he caught himself. 

"Ghaaaaaaha!... I'm okay!" 

Cerberus's three parts barked wildly at him from the dock. 

"Sorry boys, I've really got to go, if you see Dream, tell him he can cram this marriage crap right where the sun doesn't shine. Tommy belongs to no man, or woman, or non-binary person!"

Tommy grabbed the oars and rowed. Bracing himself against the edge of the boat. The barking of the dogs on the shore got louder with every tug.

Tommy started laughing, but as he got further and further away, he noticed that none of Cerberus's three heads were looking at him. Their wolf-sharp eyes fixed on the water between him and them, following something moving underneath. 

"Wh-"

**Twang**

A three-pronged trident shot out of the water to Tommy's left, nearly taking a chunk out of his ear. 

**"Ohmygodwhatthefuckshitshitshitshit!"**

Tommy put his back and a new rush of adrenaline into rowing. Just below the surface of the water, many, many pairs of sickly blue eyes glared up at him. Choked growling noises filled Tommy's ears as the drowned broke the surface, skeletal hands covered in decaying, sodden flesh reached for him. The smell alone would have made Tommy retch if he had anything to vomit up. 

**"Getawayfrommegetawaygetawaygetaway!"**

A slimy hand grabbed the back of Tommy's shirt. He lost his hold on the oars and was wretched violently backward. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the other drowned clambered onto the boat. The one in the lead had a trident in his hands. Tommy trashed with all his strength, but the one grabbing his shirt had an iron grip and the weight of the water holding it down. 

**"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhaaa!"**

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Tommy watched with wide eyes as the drowned aimed its trident right between his eyes. He raised his hands to protect his eyes, but another drowned climbing in from his left sank its fish-hook claws into his arm and wretch it down, while one from his right slammed a rotten fist into his gut. 

❤❤❤❤

The trident came down hard on his head, knocking black spots into Tommy's eyes. They were toying with him, softening him up before the final blow. His mouth was open, he thought he was still screaming, but all he could hear was the disgusting, gargling, death-rattles coming from all around him... 

❤

The drowned planted the points of the trident over his heart. Setting up the kill like a butcher who wanted the meat to be nice and tender. It braced itself, readying for the last strike. 

**Ker-thwack!**

Bits of brain and skull exploded in all directions. The drowned on top of Tommy made one final gargle from the crushed pulp that used to be its head and flopped lifelessly on top of him. 

Tommy screamed, loud and high-pitched, tears flowing like rivers. The twice dead body pinned him down, foul-smelling, black-rotting, blood spouting from its neck hole, getting all over the front of his shirt. He put every ounce of his strength into trying to shove the slimy, dedicated corpse off of him and back into the water, but the creature didn't budge. 

"No, no, no, no!" Tommy screamed between hysterical sobs. 

"Shut up before you get some in your mouth!" 

Surprising even himself, Tommy followed that order. 

With a grunt, Dream hefted Nightmare to the side, dislodging the axe blade from the drowned's skull and flipping the body over the edge of the boat. 

That settled, Dream switched his attention to the drowned grabbing Tommy's collar. With another hefty swing, he severed the arm at the wrist, leaving the dismembered hand still clinging. Tommy scrabbled to his knees, eyes wide as dinner plates as he witnessed Dream, in full enchanted Netherite, standing over him in the middle of the river.

Dream brought Nightmare down again, smashing open another skull. 

"What are you doing! Grab that trident and fight!" Dream roared, shaking loose Tommy's last two brain cells. He grabbed the trident the drowned pinning him had dropped and stabbed another with it, forcing it back into the murky water. 

For every drowned he or Dream took down, seven more surged out of the depths to take their place. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of them, all packed like sardines into a river of the damned. 

Dream pulled out a splash potion and tossed it underhand, coating the surging drowned in a thick grey liquid that stuck to them like tar. The potion of slowness gave him just enough time to grab Tommy by the wrist and haul him out of the boat. 

Dream ran ahead, pulling Tommy behind him. A bitter cold sunk into Tommy's bare feet. He looked down to see they were standing on a small island of ice. Dream ran ahead, his Frost Walker boots freezing the water under each of his steps. The drowned clawed at the ice behind them, breaking it up into shards in their wake. Dream kept running, even when Tommy slipped on the ice and nearly face-planted into the steal-hard surface. He Dragged the teenager along like a rag doll until they reached the far shore, where he dropped Tommy onto the grass. 

The drowned growled their displeasure at losing their prey. They gathered on the shore, glaring up at them from the safety of the water. 

"What the fuck! There were so many of them!" Tommy shouted, clutching the bloodstained trident to his chest. He knew that monsters could pile up, especially in small places where they could shelter from the sun, but there were limits, and that was way, way past it. 

"Did you put them there?" Tommy asked. 

"Yeah," Dream replied stiffly. He kneeled to the grass and carefully wiped the blood and brain matter off of Nightmare's blade. 

"Why the fuck would you do that? Was that all just a trap for me? Why go to the bother of saving me?" 

Dream tucked Nightmare back into the sheath on his hip and fixed Tommy with a glare full of disappointment. 

"I was hoping you would be smart enough to look before you hopped in the boat. Obviously, I overestimated your observational skills. I guess next time I'll put up a sign that says 'Beware of zombies, dumbass'" 

"Bullshit, you wanted to keep me in!"

"No. I wanted to keep other people out," Dream countered. "I don't have to worry about keeping you anywhere."

"What the fuck does that mean?" 

Dream snorted and shook his head. "You'll see..." 

"You're a prick, you know that?" 

Dream crossed his arms over his chest, the armour clanking against itself. He nodded his head in the direction Tommy had been heading. "Go on, you walked for hours to get here and almost died crossing the river. You might as well finish the trip and realize you were going the wrong way." 

"Wrong way, my arse." Tommy snapped, using the shaft of the trident to help him get back on his feet. "Anyway that's away from you is just fine by me!"

Dream didn't say a word, he just stared at Tommy through the dark eyes in his mask. 

"Dickhead…" Tommy grumbled under his breath. He took small, painful steps away from Dream. Using the trident as a walking stick. He wasn't sure, but his right ankle was aching in a way that usually meant something was very wrong. A sprain probably, or a torn something. 

"Arsehole thinks he is so smart, he can't tell me what to do, I'm not a pawn in his stupid game of- Ahha!" 

Tommy had glanced back to make sure dream wasn't following him and smacked into something hard. 

"Shit!"

Tommy rubbed his cheek, checking his nose to make sure he hadn't broken it. His face was his moneymaker, after all. If Dream messed that up, he'd have to sue or…

Slowly, Tommy lowered himself to the grass, not trusting his feet to hold him up anymore. He pressed his hand against the translucent blue barrier, watching as the dark navy stripes danced across the surface. 

"Is… is that?"

"The world boundary." 

Stunned, Tommy didn't react when he heard Dream's voice in his ear. He couldn't take his eyes off the barrier and how it stretched into the sky further than he could see. 

"N-no… this... this can't…" Tommy stammered. 

Dream touched Tommy's hand, easing the trident out of his fingers like he was removing an accessory from a figurine.

"Check your coordinates," Dream suggested, as he pulled Tommy's quivering form into his lap. "I thought you would have done that already, but I guess that's also asking too much."

Tommy lifted his hand, opening his inventory by accident before successfully accessing the debug interface. 

**XYZ: 29999983.531 / 93.64475 / 29999960.763**

"Th-thirty mi-million?" Tommy stammered, his chest and head ached, he was sweating and flushed, even while chills ran down his spine. 

"It's funny, you know," Dream mused as he stood up, carrying the panic-stricken teenager in both arms. "People think that Hades is underground because it's like The Neither, but you could just as easily translate its location as 'the ends of the earth'"

Tommy shifted in Dream's arms, staring over his shoulder at the boundary. Blinking over and over, as if this was a nightmare he could wake up from. 

"Come on. I've got a hoarse waiting. We should get back before nightfall or those drowned are going to become a problem."

* * *

They stopped by the fountain on the way back. Dream dismounted and helped Tommy off what turned out to be a skeleton horse. An immortal replacement for Spirit, Tommy guessed, though he hadn't cared enough to ask. 

Dream held his hand to keep him upright until they reached the benches and the shade of the Prismarine gazebo. 

"You look awful. You should eat," Dream suggested. 

Tommy was about to retort that he needed a lot more than something to eat… until he saw Dream pull out a golden fruit with a ghostly lavender shine to it. Dream casually dropped the Enchanted apple into his lap, as if it weren't one of the most powerful items on the server. 

Tommy grabbed it with both hands, knowing that one bite would ease the pain all over his body and go a long way towards filling the bottomless pit in his stomach. He raised it to his lips, then froze. 

Slowly, painfully, he lowered the apple. 

"I... I'm not as stupid as you seem to think I am. I've heard this story before…" Tommy muttered, refusing to meet Dream's vacant eyes. 

"You have? That's good. You should know how it ends then." 

"I know how you want it to end. You want me to stay here and be your bitch." 

"I think the right word is 'Queen', but I'm open to making adjustments." 

Tommy looked from the apple to Dream. This was asinine. It was just a piece of fruit. Even if he took a bite, it wouldn't mean anything… besides, he couldn't turn down every bit of food Dream offered him. Well, he could, but if he was going to punish Dream by taking their combined lives, there were cleaner ways to do it than repeatedly starving himself. 

"I don't care what you or Techno say. I'm Tommy, not Phose-phone or whatever her name is! I'm going to eat this and escape!" 

"Of course you are," Dream agreed, his shit-eating grin echoing in his voice. 

Tommy opened his mouth wide and took a huge bite from the enchanted apple, glaring at dream with righteous indignation as he chewed, and chewed.. and chewed. 

"Go on…" Dream purred, curling his fingers under Tommy's chin and tilting his face until they were eye to eye, "Swallow it."

Tommy froze. He couldn't spit the apple out. The sweet syrup and golden church tasted like a bite of heaven after an afternoon spent wandering in the desert… But seeing Dream so obsessively invested set off every alarm bell he had. 

Dream pushed his mask up just enough to reveal his mouth and nose and leaned in. this wasn't their first kiss, but it was the first one Tommy had been awake for the beginning of, so he didn't see it coming until Dream's lips were flush against his. 

Tommy tried to shift away, but Dream grabbed his shoulders and pinned him to the armrest of the Wedgewood bench. Something warm and wet touched Tommy's bottom lip. He opened his mouth to scream, or curse, something! But only allowed Dream to shove his tongue into his mouth and push the bite of apple down his throat. 

Dream pulled back before Tommy could bite down on the bit of him invading his mouth. He left the teenager alone on the bench, choking as bits of chewed apple went down the wrong way. 

"B-bastard!" Tommy roared at the retreating man's back. 

The magical effects of the apple were already taking effect, regeneration sealing up the cuts and bruises all over Tommy's body. 

Aware that Dream wasn't looking at him anymore, Tommy tucked the remaining two-thirds of the apple into his pocket. He would have to heal the rest of his injuries naturally, but it was worth it to keep ahold of a bit of insurance. 

"Sun is setting!" Dream called from the back of his skeleton horse. "Hurry or I'm leaving you to the zombies." 

Tommy was half tempted, but after nearly being dismembered by the drowned, he wasn't exactly feeling that method of death either. Besides, he didn't want to jeopardize the ace he had stuffed up his sleeve… or down his pants, if you wanted to be literal about it.


	2. The Axe of Damocles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Everyone. I hope you're ready for an update that I put way too much effort and love into. 
> 
> I received some fanart for the previous chapter, and I loved it so much that going forward I'll be commissioning him for regular illustrations. So please welcome Monsterritory to the team! I think that everything about this Fanfic will be improved with his help. (Including my in-game builds) see the post below for both pictures.
> 
> [Monsterritory's Art](https://monsterritory.tumblr.com/post/640605586809028608/two-comissioned-illustrations-i-did-for-the-fanfic%20Tumblr)
> 
> [Monsterritory's Tumblr](https://monsterritory.tumblr.com/)  
> [Monsterritory's Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/monsterritory/)

Tommy tightened his grip on the leather reins.

‘Don’t look back. Don’t look back, don’t look...’

He could hear the echoing clip-clop of hooves behind him. A matching step for every movement made by the skeletal horse he sat astride of.

Tommy dug his heel into his horse’s ribcage, but the creature didn’t seem to get his message. Undead horses seemed to realize they had all eternity left and weren’t prone to rushing about like their living counterparts.

A voice from behind him broke the silence. “Pleasant weather we’re having, huh? Really… sunny…”

“It’s a desert, Dream.”

“Yeah, but it’s like… the good sunny,”

Tommy grit his teeth, trying to cling to his mantra for one more moment before his patience broke. He twisted around to glare at the armoured man who was tailgating him like a lorry driver on the M25. 

“You know, having you ride beside me is kinda killing the whole dramatic escape vibe I had going on. Couldn’t you just follow me at a distance like before?”

“1. I’m out of Invis potions,” Dream said, holding up fingers as he counted. “And 2. I’m bored. I thought we might as well talk since we’re out here.”

“T-Talk? Talk?! What makes you think I have anything to say to you?”

“I’dunno, seems like you’re doing it right now.”

Tommy twisted back around and fixed his eyes on the sand ahead again. Another ten minutes passed in silence before Dream piped up again.

“So, I was thinking… Do you have any plans for tomorrow?”

“D-Do I have??” Tommy spluttered in righteous indignation. “Yes, actually! I’m planning on escaping from the clutches of a murderous psychopath, kinda important, I’ll probably be at it all day!”

Dream nodded as if he was actually hearing something new. “Do you think you’ll be more successful than the first six times?”

“Only one way to find out,” Tommy muttered.

“I think there are more ways of finding out,” Dream mused, his shoulder rising and falling in a casual shrug. “Like trying the same escape plan six times and getting the same results.”

Tommy could feel his cheeks burning, but he convinced himself it was just the heat.

They rode in blissful silence for another few minutes before Dream opened his gob again.

“I’m not a psychopath.”

“Oh, you’re not?” Tommy asked with a bark of laughter, “My apologies good sir, I must have gotten confused by all the kidnapping, murder, war crimes, terrorism, death threats, burglary, home invasion…” Tommy knew he could go on for hours if he had a scrap of paper and time to brainstorm, but Dream cut him off there.

“Psychopaths don’t have empathy, don’t care about anyone but themselves. They just pretend to have emotions to get things from other people.”

“Check, check, check. You're making this way too easy, Dream. You know what they say about ducks. If they walk like one, talk like one, have weird little webby feet like one, quack like one… -wait, I already said that- The point is; they is one.”

Dream pulled up beside Tommy, fixing his hidden eyes on the teenager’s light blue ones.

“I care about you.”

Tommy’s mouth dropped open. That weird butterfly wing flapping feeling rising in the pit of his stomach. The same one that had once tricked him into feeling safe around this monster. Tommy swallowed hard and shook his head like he was trying to shake off a bad Dream.

“Bullshit.”

That statement hung in the air between them, lingering like an unpleasant smell.

“So, tomorrow I’m going to be training all morning,” Dream continued, acting as if he hadn’t heard.

“Good for you,” Tommy replied, summoning every ounce of sarcasm bestowed on him by multiple generations of equally done-with-your-shit englishmen. “Maybe if you keep at it, you won’t have to hide behind your prot-5 armour and fight like a man for once.”

“And,” Dream continued, speaking louder over Tommy’s whinging. “I was hoping you would join me.”

Tommy yanked on the reigns and the skeleton horse he was riding slowed to a dead stop.

“You wanna train with me?”

The giddy excitement Tommy had felt when Dream had first started paying attention to him came back with a vengeance. Back then, he would have given anything for Dream to offer him that… but now...

Now he knew better. 

“I said already. I’m busy,” Tommy insisted, urging his horse onward with a dig in its side.

“What if I make you a deal?”

Just hearing Dream say the word ‘deal’ was enough to raise the hair on the back of Tommy’s neck. He should have stopped the conversation right there. He could count the number of times a deal made with Dream had worked out for him on the fingers of one hand, but his own damn curiosity compelled him to at least hear the terms. 

“What kind of deal?”

“Well, we both agree you’re going to take any opportunity you can to escape...”

“Yup,”

“And that I’m going to follow you when you do until you get tired, or hungry, or attacked by zombies.”

“…”

“So let's say we save ourselves some time and energy by… not doing all that, but saying that we did?”

Tommy blinked twice. Working his way backward through Dream’s logic.

“Hang on, how is that different from just giving up?”

“It’s different because we don’t spend hours riding through the desert each day and you get to keep your dignity.”

Tommy scoffed. “Keep my dignity? Oh yeah, this is really dignified, riding through the desert with a horse’s bony backbone digging into my crotch, and three-quarters of a million blocks between me and anyone who actually gives a shit about my feeligns.”

“You’re making my point for me,” Dream said. He crossed his arms over the top of his horse’s skull and leaned over it, like a predator scoping out the low ground. “What if I sweeten the deal? If you behave all day tomorrow, I’ll give you back your phone.”

“M-my phone?” Tommy’s mind raced as he thought through all the things he could do if Dream gave back his device. Having it back meant freedom, it meant he could communicate with everyone on the server. Surely Dream couldn’t afford to give him that much power?

“No. No. I know your trick. You’re going to block the signal! Or, or, or hack it so I can’t use Discord.”

“I won’t. I’ve done nothing to it. You can message whoever you like, give them your coordinates, take pictures of my base, I don’t care. You’re too far away for them to help.”

Tommy bit his bottom lip. The idea of bargaining with Dream for things that were rightfully his always made him feel sick, but he had signed away his soul to this devil before.

“I’ll think about it,” Tommy replied, shortly.

* * *

The next morning at the crack of dawn, Tommy was standing outside the stables and rubbing the sand out of his eyes.

Four immortal horses mulled around in their paddock, casually nibbling on hay, probably out of habit from their past lives. Tommy had tried escaping on the back of all of them. All four had been amenable, nuzzling up when he tried to pet them and not lashing out, no matter how badly Tommy bungled saddling them up. Tommy had even bothered to learn each one’s name, despite having to deal with more Greek pronunciations. From left to right there was; Orphnaeus, Aethon, Nycteus and Alastor.

Tommy looked through the satchel he had prepared. It was full of food, some stone tools, flint and steel, and some wood. Everything he needed to start off his journey. -But supplies weren’t his problem. He could get those at any point along his journey, and he had become adept at making do with whatever was lying around.

No, his problem was as simple as it was insurmountable. That ludicrously high number that stared him in the face whenever he dared to open the console. The number that he could not make a dent in. Every morning he set out trying to tell himself he could do it, only to return with his tail between his legs when he faced the inevitable once again.

Dream had told him that even putting the numbers generously in his favour, it would take four weeks of non-stop travel to reach spawn. Tommy had assumed Dream was lying at first, but he was having doubts. The nether could cut that time in half, but only if he didn’t die repeatedly trying to cross one of the most hostile places available on the server.

He couldn’t do this alone. He needed help. Tommy wasn’t sure what kind of help he needed, but his friends had helped him do the impossible before…

Only, they couldn’t help unless they knew where he was, and he couldn’t tell them unless he played along with Dream.

Tommy took a few steps back and turned away from the stables.

“Fine, Big-Man. We’ll do things your way for now..” Tommy muttered. “But the war isn’t over yet.”

* * *

After returning to his room to get a few more hours of sleep, Tommy went looking for Dream. He wasn’t exactly keen on running into the admin in a narrow hallway, so he hadn’t fully explored the first floor of the temple base until now.

The two halves didn’t directly connect, so Tommy walked around to the front of the temple and took the quartz slab stairs up to the main entrance. He cautiously leaned around the narrow doorway, looking into a sizable chamber with high ceilings and more decorative columns. A lime green carpet paved the way to a huge quartz throne backed with glazed lime terracotta and a bunch of dark blocks. 

Above the throne on the far wall, a stained-glass window caught Tommy’s eye. He squinted at it until he recognized Dream’s general shape in the stained glass.

“Oh, a temple to himself. Why am I not surprised?”

Begrudgingly, Tommy walked towards the throne, passing under the archway of sea lanterns. As he got closer, he realized that the black-ish blocks weren’t wool, terracotta, blackstone, or coal, but blocks of pure netherite.

“Holy shit…”

He rushed over to the right arm of the throne and pulled out his stone pickaxe. The first hit hardly registered, but as Tommy kept at it, the block loosened. The sound of stone scraping metal echoed around the immense chamber, but Tommy didn’t care about the racket he was making.

About a minute into this process, a four-legged beast rounded the corner. It’s nails scraped on the polished floor before it successfully found traction. Cerberus-part-two barked and barked, jumping all around Tommy in its effort to get him to stop. Tommy refused to take his eye off the prize, knowing that if he let up for even a moment, the block would settle and he would have to start all over again. Cerberus-2 sank its teeth into Tommy’s pant leg and tried to pull him away.

Tommy grit his teeth through it. The block was just on the edge of giving way.

**Clunk**

On Tommy’s last swing, the netherite block shattered like a pane of glass, leaving behind nothing but razor-thin fragments.

Cerberus-2 let go of Tommy’s leg and sat next to the empty spot where the block had been, looking up at Tommy with its head cocked to the side. As if it was trying to ask, ‘What did you do that for?‘

Slow, sarcastic clapping made Tommy turn to see Dream leaning against a pillar. 

“Wow, you did it! Great job learning a basic law of physics. I almost broke a sweat just watching you.” Dream pushed himself away from his leaning spot with one elbow and extended his arm toward Tommy. “Now, hand it over.” 

Tommy hesitated for a moment, but not much longer. It had nearly broken, and he had just proven how useless stone tools really were. He placed the wooden handle in Dream’s hand and tucked both hands behind his back. 

Dream swapped back to his netherite pick and removed a chunk of quartz in the floor. Then, after tucking the block safely away, he produced a bucket of lava and dumped the molten ooze into the space. The heat made Tommy’s skin sting. He still didn’t understand how Dream could stand to be so close, while wearing his hoodie no less! The only time he passed a comment about it, Dream cracked a joke about how brits can’t take the heat, which had led to a longer argument about air conditioning and humidity- 

“and the rest…” 

Tommy snapped back to attention when he heard the note of impatience in Dream’s voice. 

“The rest?” 

“I have everything ready in the arena. You won’t be needing your tools.” 

Tommy bit his bottom lip. It had been a while since they had done this, he’d almost started feeling safe carrying his equipment around again. 

He turned out his inventory, dumping 20 identical stone pickaxes onto the temple floor. 

“Good boy,” Dream praised. He scooped up the pile and dropped them one by one into the lava. “What were you even planning to do with these?” 

Tommy shrugged his shoulders. “Build a tower… I thought it might help show the others where I am…. If they could get close enough.” 

“If that’s what you want. We can do that together. I’ll get you a better pick then this garbage though.” 

His work completed, Dream scooped up the lava with his bucket and put the missing block back into the floor as if nothing had happened. 

“Come on! We’re wasting daylight out here,” Dream enthused, taking Tommy by the upper arm and pulling him toward a doorway in the temple's side that Tommy didn’t remember being there before. 

The sudden assault of sunlight turned everything into a muddy blur for a moment, then a large white blob on the horizon resolved itself into a massive quartz building. 

Quartz pillars arranged in a circle. Plinths for statues of the gods and goddesses to watch the activity within and without. There was only one word for this kind of building, pioneered thousands of years ago, yet still in use today. Only with the gladiators swapped for athletes and weapons for differently shaped balls.

A Colosseum. 

Meanwhile, 3 million blocks away, an icy shiver ran down Technoblade’s spine as he sensed the disturbance caused by Dream’s unforgivable mix-up between Greek and Roman.

As Tommy followed Dream down the steps, the scale of the building asserted itself. It must have taken ages to mine all that quartz… That, or Mr. High-and-Mighty had finally caved and used creative mode. 

Dream had arranged a line of chests near the bottom of the stairs, each underneath an item frame. Tommy raised an eyebrow when he saw they were all wooden swords, but he figured that was just a way to mark what was in the chest… until he opened the first one up. He walked down the line, opening them all, but each chest only contained wooden weapons and leather armour. 

Tommy looked over to see Dream fastening a leather chest plate over his hoodie. Dream caught his eye, reading his thoughts from his expression. 

“This isn’t a duel to the death. These are perfectly fine to train with.”

“Yeah, if you’re like a baby, or something,” Tommy muttered. 

“It’s not about what you make your weapon of, only how you handle it. Now get dressed, we’re losing daylight.”

Tommy begrudgingly pulled the equipment out of a chest and suited up. At least the arrows in the crossbow were real arrows, not padded sticks. 

“Said like someone who thinks size doesn’t mater either…” Tommy retorted. Dream either didn’t hear or didn’t care, because he had already equipped a shield and entered the colosseum. 

Tommy stuffed a sword on his right hip, an axe on his left, and slung the crossbow over one shoulder with one arrow already cocked and loaded. 

The first crack to his natural bravado came when he crossed the threshold of the arena. There were two enormous gaps in both sides, so he couldn’t say he felt trapped… but being contained within those high ivory walls was intimidating to put it lightly. White, dry powder crunched under the soles of his leather boots. He leaned down to grab a handful, letting the small grains flow through his fingers. 

White concrete powder…

It seemed like a lot of trouble to go to when surrounded by sand, but then, it also seemed like a bit much to build an entire colosseum just to fight your captive. 

“When did you build all this?” Tommy asked, raising his voice for Dream, who was standing on an emerald block that marked the dead center of the arena. 

“I don’t sleep,” Dream replied with a shrug.

“Oh right, I forgot, you prefer to do your shit in the woods like a bear.”

As he moved further inside, Tommy passed over a portion of the field that had Black concrete powder instead of white. 

His brows knitted in confusion until he followed the black line from one end to the other, noting the subtle curve of a grin. 

They were standing on a battlefield made to resemble Dream’s mask. Tommy looked from the smile under his feet to the one plastered over the face of the man standing before him. 

Tommy licked his lips. Feeling all the pent up rage and frustration he had felt over the last week rushing back to the surface. 

He pulled his sword from his hip and held it in front of himself. The tip of the dull wooden blade shaking even though his hands were nearly steady. Dream was right, It didn’t matter what his weapon was; he was going to use it to make Dream hurt. Make him feel some fraction of the pain he’d inflicted on Tommy over their short but tumultuous time together. It might not be much in the way of revenge, but it was somewhere to start. 

Dream banged his axe against his shield. “Go on! Give me your best shot. The first one is free!” 

Tommy didn’t need to be told twice. He took a running charge at Dream, weapon raised. He swung, aiming for Dream’s neck with a level of force that could have easily parted it from his body had his weapon not been wood-

…and if Dream had still been there. 

The follow-through spun Tommy around, nearly knocking him off his feet. Dream stood a few feet away from him, floating like a butterfly that was about to become a bee.

“I was planning on giving you some advice,” Dream mused, “-but I didn’t think we would have to start with ‘hit things to do damage’” 

Tommy hissed like a feral raccoon and dove back into combat. His sword connected with Dream’s chest, knocking the wind out of him. Dream stumbled back, raising his shield to block any more incoming attacks. 

“Oofph! Okay… Okay. I deserved that,” Dream admitted. “That’s clever. I didn’t think you would try being that bad just to bait me into letting my guard down…” Dream pulled his axe from his hip and gripped it at the perfect balance point between the mock-blade and hilt. “But… you wasted being clever with your free shot. Now it’s my turn.” 

Quick as a lighting blot, Dream swung his axe. Tommy raised his shield in time to block, but it was a near thing. The force of the axe colliding pushed Tommy’s shield out of the way, leaving him open for Dream’s next strike. 

**Twack**

“Fuck!” 

Tommy lay on his back in the grainy powder, struggling to get his breath back. Dream casually placed his boot on his chest and touched the head of his axe to the side of Tommy’s throat. 

“And you’re dead. GG. 0-1.”

Dream returned to the centre of the field while Tommy forced himself back onto his feet. 

“That was just a warmup!” Tommy insisted. 

“You don’t get a warm up when you’re in a war. If you’re not ready to shoot your shot when the opportunity comes, then you’ll miss it. Simple as that.” 

Tommy rolled his eyes and readied himself for another attack. 

“Ugh. This is just embarrassing,” Dream bemoaned. “Please put the toothpick away and get your axe out. Swords are good for crowd control and making kebabs, not actually fighting 1v1.”

“Just because that’s how you play dosen’t mean it’s the best.”

“No, Tommy, it actually dose. I can see the numbers… here…” Dream placed down a crafting table and strapped together a fresh diamond sword. Tommy averted his eyes for privacy. He had been told it was rude to watch another man when he was using a crafting table.

Dream tossed the weapon in his direction and returned the crafting table to his inventory.

“Look at the base damage of that and your wooden axe.” 

Tommy glanced between the two, paying attention to the numbers that he usually just tuned out. Sure enough, the two were exactly the same. Tommy replaced his wooden sword with the diamond one, but let it rest in its sheath as he readied his own axe. 

He kept both his eyes fixed on Dream, waiting to see if the admin would go on the offensive this time. Dream seemed perfectly content to stand in the middle of his ego trip of an arena and wait for Tommy.

“Are you just going to stand there and make me do all the work? I always knew you were secretly a bottom.”

Dream barked out a laugh, “Ha! That’s funny. You’re _so funny_ , Tommy. You know how much I love your little jokes… Especially when they’re all you have left.”

Tommy ground his teeth together. This guy, this FUCKING GUY. Before he knew what he was doing Tommy charged, wielding his axe like the principal antagonist of an 80s movie he had never seen, but was aware of through cultural osmosis.

Dream sidestepped again, but this time he didn’t settle for just moving out of the way. He spun around as Tommy flew past and counter-attacked. 

Tommy yelped and dropped his weapon, both his hands going to cradle his throbbing backside. He wasn’t sure what had even happened until he saw Dream holding his axe sideways, the flat end of the blade facing towards him, and compared it to the fresh welt he was nursing. 

“What the actual fuck Dream?” Tommy stammered. “You really just… just… spanked me?!” 

“Oh, come onnnnn, you made it way too easy!” Dream bemoaned, tossing his axe and catching it. “Now, quit your bitchin’ and show Daddy some actual fighting...”

Tommy grabbed the crossbow off his back and curled his finger around the trigger. Aiming right between Dream’s blank eyes. Dream tossed his shield up, tracking Tommy’s aim with it, protecting all the parts of his body. 

Licking the sweat from his lips, Tommy raised the crossbow to his eye. Then, at the last moment, he looked one way and shot the other. 

The arrow flew true and sunk into Dream’s leather chest plate. The shaft quivered like it had just found the bullseye on a target board. 

“Haha!” Tommy crowed. “Suck it!” 

He loaded another shot into his crossbow and aimed it at Dream before he could close the gap between them. Dream stopped and raised his shield. 

“Go on, turn around, I want to get the second one in your arse!” 

Dream snickered from behind his shield. “Smart play! But you won’t get me that way twice.” 

Dream dropped his shield, leaving Tommy gazing down the flight grove of Dream’s crossbow. He ducked out of the way, bringing his own shield back up. Instead of hearing the dull thwack of an arrow hitting wood, Tommy’s shield and his entire arm got violently knocked to the side, leaving him open for a free axe crit. 

**Thunk**

Dream put his boot back on Tommy’s chest. “2-0, want to go again?”

“Go to hell!”

“Hades… and we’re already there. Remember?”


	3. Reflections

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Illustrations provided by monsterritory
> 
> [Monsterritory's Tumblr](https://monsterritory.tumblr.com/)  
> [Monsterritory's Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/monsterritory/)

"Alright, that's enough for one day," Dream insisted, wiping the sweat off his brow with the sleeve of his hoodie.

"No, come on. One more! I’m going to beat you this time!"

Tommy tried to raise his axe, but his sore muscles screamed against even the smallest movement. He ached all over, as if Dream had successfully turned him into one gigantic bruise.

Dream scoffed and shook his head. "I adore your tenacity, Tommy, but part of winning is knowing how to pick your battles. You're in rough shape. Time to take the L and rest up for next time."

He reached down to unbuckle his leather chest plate. Tommy's fingers tightened around his axe hilt, watching as Dream stripped off his protective armour like he didn't even care that Tommy could attack him still.

But then… that would just be taking a cheap shot. It wouldn't prove anything.

Dream exited the arena through the opposite entrance, pulling off bits of his armour as he went. Tommy followed a few minutes later, not wanting to be standing alone on a gigantic replica of Dream's face.

He had glimpsed an extra building tucked away behind the arena when he approached it, but Tommy had more pressing things to think about.

He didn't have to wait long to discover what it was for. As soon as he passed through the open archway, the sounds of rushing water filled his ears. The rest of Dream's armour lay strewn about on the quartz floor, along with his hoodie, trousers… and his pants.

Tommy reluctantly followed the trail of Dream's belongings up a short flight of stairs until he reached the lip of a large pool, shaded from the sun by a quartz roof held up by columns.

The water was about three blocks at its deepest. Dream had lined the sides with three layers of gentle slab steps. Tommy recognized all three kinds of Prismarine. A high wall lined the side of the pool that faced the temple hilltop, holding back water from a larger pool above. Gaps in the quartz formed miniature waterfalls, illuminated by blocks of emerald that were glowing brighter as the sun set on the horizon.

Dream stood underneath one waterfall, letting the flow soak through his dirty blond hair, washing away the sweat and dirt from their prolonged training session. Tommy followed the water's progress down Dream's broad shoulders, pecks, abdomen, prominent hipbones and…

Tommy yelped and covered his eyes with both hands.

"Jesus Christ, man! Could you at least give me a warning before you get naked!"

"I'm not naked," Dream insisted.

Confused, Tommy peeked through his fingers and caught a fresh eyeful of Dream in all his glory.

"What the fuck do you mean you're not naked?! You've got your dick hanging out!"

"Well, yeah, but I'm still wearing one thing."

Tommy groaned and forced himself to peek again, trying to keep his eyes above Dream's waistline. Dream was holding up both hands and pointing to the white mask still affixed on his face. The arrogant smile fitting perfectly.

"Of course, you fucking are. Of course, you get in the bath with that on! Why not?!"

Tommy dropped his hands, seeing as the _'just don't look down'_ strategy was working for now.

"so… are you going to get in?" Dream asked, tilting his head to the side.

"Am I… Ah-ah-ah-am I!?" Tommy spluttered.

He turned to look behind him to the arena, reminding himself that it was less than ten blocks away from this lavishly designed pool. Tommy may have been young and on the innocent side for a boy of 16 with internet access, but even he had seen enough hentai to know where this was going.

"Bloody hell, is this really why you asked me to train with you, Dream? All that bullshit just to bait me into getting naked in a big bath with you?"

Dream froze up, his back going ramrod straight and his shoulders rising with the sudden tension.

"Wh-what?" he stammered. "No! It's a Roman-style bath to go with the coliseum! It just matched!"

Tommy hadn't been expecting that reaction, but he latched onto the opportunity of catching Dream off-guard like a drowning man grabbing a plank of driftwood.

"All that proves is that you wanted the whole set up before your little peep show! Yeah, Yeah! This _aaaalllll_ makes sense now! You did all this work so you could act out your fantasy of seducing your pro-toe-jay after a steamy day of training! I bet you were daydreaming about bending me over some of this quartz the entire time we were fighting!"

Dream backed up a few steps, bumping into the wall behind him.

"What? What? Whaaaaat?" He stammered. "Tommy, that's not-! It's normal! This is perfectly normal! Haven't you ever been to a gym? You work out then you wash up in the locker room with the guys! You're making it weird! It's not weird!"

Tommy kicked off the sandals Dream had given him (after he'd asked about six times) and waded into the water. He didn't want to get in, but he couldn't pass up this opportunity.

"You're standing in a gigantic tub surrounded by gold and jewels and marble columns! This is basically a porno set! You clearly put a lot of thought into this, you creep. I bet you were touching yourself while you built this, thinking of all the fucked-up things you were going to do to me!"

"I never! I didn't?! it just matched?! Jesus, fuck! Tommy, you don't have to get in the water if you don't want to, okay?! I would never force you to take a bath with me! It was just an offer!"

Dream seemed to have rallied because he pushed himself away from the wall and worked his way around the topmost slap tier towards Tommy.

"You sure? Awful big bath for one..." Tommy mused.

"Leave! Just leave!" Dream ordered. Pointing toward the stairs back up to the temple. "I can't handle this. All you had to do was tell me you were going to pussy out!"

"…"

The sun was over the horizon, hot desert air cooling rapidly, but the icy atmosphere had little to do with it.

"What did you just call me?" Tommy growled under his breath.

"I didn't stutter."

"Oh, okay! We're doing this now, are we?! I'll show you just how much of a pussy I am! I'll show you everything."

Tommy grabbed at the front of his tunic. The loose fabric was easy to slip in and out of. Even the trousers basically fell off as soon as he pulled the drawstring. He accidentally got both a little wet in his haste, but he just tossed them back over the side, aiming for Dream's hoodie to get it wet as well.

Tommy planted his fists on both hips, standing proudly in the all-together. Like he was flying the colours of his homeland.

"How's that Dream, is your curiosity satisfied now?"

Dream started snickering, covering his mouth with both hands under his mask to stem the flow of hysterics. He had to crouch down to stop himself from falling over. He slammed his fist into the marble, trying to catch his breath between laugh-wheezing.

"You… you are such a fucking dumbass!" Dream cackled once he could breathe again. "I can't believe you fell for that!"

Tommy's face flushed, the blush spreading down to his neck and chest.

"Sh-shut up! I don't care, you know! Go on and look! See for yourself how much of a child I am!"

Still struggling to regain his breath, Dream did as Tommy suggested. Tommy couldn't tell exactly where Dream was looking, but he could guess that Dream wasn't restricting his gaze to above the hips.

"You've got me there," Dream admitted. "But I've never objected to your appearance, Tommy, just your attitude. You're handsome and… less gangly than I was expecting. I'm actually impressed. I guess your time on my server has done you some good."

"Well… uh… thank you.." Tommy replied, his tongue nearly tying itself in a knot to avoid saying those words, "You're still a fucking creep though."

Tommy waded deeper into the water. It was nice and hot, temping him in with the promise of soothing the aches and bruises all over his body.

Submerged up to his shoulders, a small contented sigh escaped Tommy's lips. He held out a small sliver of hope Dream hadn't heard until...

"It's nice, isn't it?" Dream settled into the water, extending both arms out to rest on the side of the pool.

Ignoring Dream, Tommy wrapped his arms around his middle, turning to watch the last of the pink fade from the sky. Less to admire the unmatched glory of nature, and more so he didn't have to look at Dream.

"Tommy… what's that on your back?"

Water splashed behind Tommy. He didn't even have time to turn around before Dream grabbed his upper arms and tightened his fingers to the point of discomfort. Tommy heard the concern in Dream's voice, a stark contrast to his usual monotone.

"What's wrong?" Tommy asked, trying to tamp down his panic.

"There are weird lines all over your back..." Dream explained. He pulled Tommy over to the polished quartz surface of the waterfall wall. With the water running down, it worked almost like a mirror. Tommy strained to look over his shoulder. He could see something on his back. Red marks starting near his neck and branching out between his shoulder blades.

"It's not blood poison, is it?" Tommy asked, quickly ramping up to his maximum talking speed of 400 words per minute. "One of my mates back in year four got a cut on his foot infected after messing about and getting his foot cut on some glass in the sandbox and this vein on the outside of his leg turned dark purple and they said if it reached the heart, he'd be a goner for sure and-"

"It's not blood poisoning, Tommy," Dream insisted. He pressed the tip of his pointer finger to the stem of the Lichtenberg figure and traced one line all the way to Tommy's upper arm. "-They're lightning scars."

"You're kidding me..." Tommy groaned and turned his gaze toward the sky, "Do I look like Harry Potter now or something? I never even liked those books!"

"No... not like that at all. The lighting took a path of least resistance through your body. It looks like the bolt hit you in the shoulders then went out though your legs," Dream explained.

To Tommy's relief, Dream let go and sat back down on the quartz bench.

"Do you remember getting hit?" Dream asked.

"No. One moment I was talking to Wilbur and the next thing I know you're..." Tommy swallowed, he needed to say it. After all, it kept happening if he wanted it to or not. "-kissing me…"

Keeping at least five feet of space between them, Tommy joined Dream on the slab seats. He brought his knees up to his chin, curling into a tight ball.

"Why did you do it anyway?" he asked, looking up but slightly to the left of Dream's mask.

"Why did I do what?"

"Why save me?"

"You know why..."

Tommy sighed and rolled his eyes. "I really, really, don't Dream."

"Try. What did I say to you moments before you died?"

Tommy racked his brain, Doomsday already felt like the spectre of a distant past. The Tommy who had charged into the fight against Technoblade and Dream, betting on nothing but his own determination and the vain hope to unite the fractured player base, felt like a completely different person.

"You said… That I was fun. That our story wasn't over. That you didn't think it would _ever_ be over."

"Exactly."

A rare moment of silence followed, filled only by the background rumble of the waterfalls.

"Pssh, is that really it?" Tommy asked. "You put yourself and your lives on the line, just so you could keep harassing me? So, you don't lose your favourite toy?"

"That's an… uncharitable interpretation, a nicer way to put it might be 'I didn't want to live without you.'"

"That's... actually super creepy Dream. Why do you have to be so creepy all the time?"

"You're the one who got completely naked when I said you didn't have to..."

Tommy bit his bottom lip. His blood pressure skyrocketing far too quickly for someone his age.

"Of all the…"

Tommy dropped his arms and kicked off from the slab he had been sitting on, launching himself across the pool in a shower of droplets. Dream flinched away from the splash. Tommy took his chance, clambering on top of Dream and grabbing both sides of his mask.

"Take this stupid thing off! If I had to strip down the least you can do is take off **this shit!** "

The band behind Dream's head snapped. Tommy retreated with his prize held tightly in both hands. Dream covered his face with his right hand, leaving his emerald left eye to flash back at Tommy with burning resentment.

Unaffected by the malice being directed at him, Tommy tossed the mask over the edge of the pool. It landed next to their clothing.

"There," Tommy proclaimed, seemingly oblivious to the gravity of what he had done, even when he met Dream's glare. "Why do you even bother wearing that stupid thing, anyway? You're hot! You have nothing worth hiding! You've got a pair of eyes that could melt an iron golem, and your smile looks like you should join a boy band or something."

Dream's expression froze somewhere between a snarl and shock.

"R-really?"

Tommy's mouth fell open. "Hold on. Are you blushing? You have got to be kidding me! If I'd known it was this easy, l'manberg wouldn't be a smoking hole in the ground!"

He started pacing across the slab steps, not seeming to care he was having to trudge through the water to do it.

"You know what else? You're fucking fit, Dream, you could probably lift me with one arm and barely break a sweat, your hair dose that stupid sexy thing where you never have to brush, but it stays perfectly ruffled and won't frizz up no matter what you do! You know, I tried using hair gel to look like you? Do you have any idea how annoying that is when it gunks up?"

As Tommy continued to ramble, Dream slunk further and further into the water until completely submerged.

* * *

Tommy dug into his steak with gusto. This was the first time he felt properly hungry since Dream had kidnapped him.

Usually, his strategy was to keep poking at his food until Dream snapped at him to stop. This time though, the other end of the long dining table was suspiciously silent, despite both of Tommy's elbows being on the table and his refusal to cut his meat, ripping off chunks with his teeth instead.

"All done!" Tommy proclaimed, pushing his chair back and stretching his arms up over his head. His recently straightened teeth clicking together at the end of a loud yawn.

"Dunno about you, but I'm fucking knackered."

Tommy dropped onto the floor and skipped to Dream's side of the table. The big man was sitting rather stiffly in his chair, holding a glass of dark red liquid that he was staring at far too deeply.

"Soooo, where's my reward?" Tommy asked.

Dream pressed the rim of the glass to his hidden lips, draining the whole thing in one go.

"What reward?" He asked, as the glass returning to the table rung a high C.

"My phone," Tommy clarified, resting a hand on his hip. "You said I could have it if I was good."

"Have you been good?" Dream asked, leaning back in his chair.

"Yes."

Tommy crossed his arms over his chest, meeting Dream's gaze as the elder pushed his chair back and stood.

"I thought you didn't drink."

"Oh… that's not alcohol."

* * *

As Dream led Tommy through the throne room, he noticed the replacement of the netherite block he had broken and the new banners hung up along the walls, lending a decidedly more menacing feeling to the room. Dream led him past the archway and behind the throne, passing through an oddly narrow hallway before turning the corner and seeing exactly why it was narrow.

This was Dream's bedroom.

Tommy stopped walking, frozen to the spot. There was no door, just an open archway with the bed set dead center.

Tommy weighed his options. His phone was definitely in there, likely in the ender chest he could see from the doorway, but getting it would mean crossing the threshold into **THAT** room.

Soul lanterns hung inside gave the forbidden area an eerie blue glow, altering the colour of the lime green banners and making them seem to glow as well.

Dream walked into the room, not effected at all by the apprehension holding back his companion. He walked over to his ender chest and popped it open. Tommy flinched as he heard the distinctive whoosh of the small dimensional pocket opening. Responding to Dream's presence by allowing him access to this place only he could touch.

His hoodie glowed under the light of the soul lanterns, just like the banners. Between the glow, raised hood, and his mask, Dream was even harder to recognize as human than usual.

"Here."

Dream held out the small black box with its mirrored screen. Tommy glimpsed himself in it. Saw his wide, terrified eyes, and mouth hung ajar.

He looked like a scared child.

Tommy shook his head to clear the sudden wave of disassociation. No. He was a man, damn it. He would not let himself lose his cool over some stupid blue lights playing tricks on him.

He strode into Dream's bedroom like he owned the place, grabbing his phone from Dream's outstretched hand.

"Thaaaaaaank you!"

Tommy turned it on. Relieved to see that it still had about 20% charge.

He went right to discord. He opened the app, expecting a sudden rush of notifications, but only found a handful waiting from Tubbo, Technoblade and Ranboo.

"Oh, do you have a spare charger?" Tommy asked. "I don't have one on me on account of not planning to get kidnapped."

"I do," Dream replied.

Tommy watched him cross the room to the desk nested between his bookshelf and the wall and open the top drawer.

Meanwhile, Tommy was eyeing up Dream's bed. Up close it looked more comfortable than terrifying. Dream had built it with a layer of slabs around it and hung green banners to act the part of curtains.

Without bothering to think twice about it, Tommy tossed himself on the bed. He bounced on his back four times before he nuzzled his shoulders into the pillow-soft mattress and neatly tucked sheets.

Dream came back and handed over the charger. Tommy grabbed it and plugged it into the red-stone socket behind his nightstand.

"Lucky it didn't get fired by that lightning, huh?" Tommy asked, mostly musing to himself.

"Well, actually it did." Dream explained. "The battery exploded. It only busted up the back panel, though. Just needed a new battery and some elbow grease. Easy fix."

Tommy sat up, leaving poor Tubbo staring at _'Tommy is typing...'_

"You… you fixed it?"

"Yeah. I knew it would upset you, so I wanted to fix it before I gave it back to you. I just finished yesterday, that's why I made the offer," Dream explained with a shrug. "I was going to give it to you if you behaved or not, but I thought it was worth trying to see if you would come train with me."

Tommy stared at Dream, so shocked he didn't even hear the flurry of 'boop's as Tubbo spammed him with concerned messages.

"Thanks for that, by the way. I had fun."

"N-no problem. I had fun to. -And you taught me a lot… enough that I'm absolutely going to get you next time."

"We can train again as soon as tomorrow," Dream suggested. "Or if you want a break... I was thinking it might be fun for you to make your own build around here. Someplace you could call your own? I gathered some materials for you… Mostly because I know you'd get lazy and just use cobblestone again."

"What's wrong with cobblestone! It's a classic material and a reliable resource."

"It's ugly."

"Wowww, I see your prejudice shining though. What? Is any block that's not white, black, or lime green not good enough for you?"

"I like to stick to my branding. I want people to look at something and just know it was me who built it. It's like… signing my name at the bottom of a painting."

Dream cocked his head to one side, Tommy's guess at where his eyeline was swept over the length of his supine form.

"I didn't mention this before…" Dream began, sounding like he wasn't sure if he should finish the thought but was plowing on regardless, "but those scars on your back…"

Tommy shifted deeper into the mattress, hiding the scars from view as best as possible.

"The part on your lower back looks like a smiley face."

"N-no, it doesn't!" Tommy snapped. He didn't actually have a coherent memory of it, but Dream was obviously projecting things onto him. Like how you could see any image you wanted in a cloud if you squinted.

"It dose. You can look for yourself."

"Nooooo thank you, stripping in front of you once was already enough for today."

"Suit yourself…" Dream said with a shrug.

The constant 'boop's from his phone caught Tommy's attention again. He squinted at the screen, confusion taking over.

_'Who the hell is spamming me with messages? I'm a little busy at the moment.'_

It took him a second to read through all the panicked responses and remember where in the conversation he was and who he was talking to.

Tubbo! Of course, his best friend, his partner in crime. He must be more tired than he thought if he was forgetting about Tubbo for a second. Tommy jumped back into the conversation, reassuring his best friend he was fine. He still needed to explain where exactly he was and why it wouldn't be as simple as picking him up on the way down to the shops.

Dream stood there awkwardly, watching Tommy type on his phone. After about thirty seconds, he started fidgeting, shifting back and forth on his heels. After two minutes he started humming to himself and staring up at the ceiling. After five, he seemed to realize that his subtle hints were not getting the message across.

"Don't you want to go back to your room?" Dream asked.

"Nha," Tommy responded, not taking his eyes off his phone.

"but you're laying in my bed."

"So, you can see though the eyeholes of that mask after all? I was beginning to wonder," Tommy muttered. He propped his shoulders up on the pillows and glared over the top of his phone. "I thought you said you didn't sleep?"

"The bed isn't for sleeping."

"Well then, you don't need it. So, I should have it. This is way to cool of a bed to not sleep in."

"Tommy..."

Tommy ignored Dream and went back to Discord.

"You can't just take my room, Tommy."

"I totally can. It wouldn't be the first time I took a bit of your server."

"You're going to found a nation on my bed?"

"Yes!" Tommy insisted. This time he warned Tubbo before he put his phone down. "I shall christen it Bedfordshire!" He glanced around and patted down his pockets, but all he had in his inventory was spare snacks.

"… Do you have a sign?" Tommy asked.

"I can craft one..."

Dream moved from one side of the room to the other. Gathering some things from his ender chest and popping down a crafting table to finish the work. Tommy stretched out on Dream's bed, plenty content to lay back and let someone else do the work.

After he finished, Dream dropped three warped signs in Tommy's lap. Tommy grinned and planted down the first one on the corner closest to the wall and scribbled on it.

"Isn't that a real place?" Dream asked.

"What? of course not! I mean England has some unusual names for things sometimes, but Bedfordshire is a bit of a stretch, isn't it?"

"I suppose..."

Tommy plunked down a second sign and scribbled more on it.

"There! see?" Tommy said triumphantly as he flopped back down on the bed.

Dream looked and read the signs out loud. "Bedfordshire. No pussies allowed."

"Well, you better get going then. Don't want to break any rules," Tommy insisted.

"I'm not leaving you alone in my room."

Tommy rolled his eyes. "You can have a temporary travel visa."

"I want dual citizenship."

"Fine, but no building an embassy. Or pitching a tent."

Dream ducked under the banner curtains and rolled onto the bed beside Tommy.

"No promises."

Tommy went back to discord. He was getting more messages now that he was obviously online but still less than he had been hoping for. He tried to ignore the weight on the bed beside him… and the warmth coming off the well-insulated man, focusing back on his plans to escape this place as soon as possible.

* * *

Shortly before the founding of Bedfordshire and millions of blocks away, another scene played out in a tiny outbuilding near Technoblade's cabin.

Philza had been pacing back and forth for the better part of an hour, watched only by Ranboo who was sitting stiffly in a corner trying to make himself as inconspicuous as possible. He didn't know what he could say to make this situation any better, so he stayed as silent as possible.

The sound of hooves crunching on the snow heralded Technoblade's return even before Phil rushed to the door to open it.

"You found him!" Phil gushed, holding out his arms for Technoblade to pass over a limp brown lump hidden inside a fur-lined parka.

"Yup. I told you I recognized the cliffs."

Phil dusted the snow off the furry hood and pulled it out of the way, revealing two nubbly ram horns and a pair of floppy brown lamb ears under a shock of unkempt brown hair.

"Hey, Tubbo. You look frozen-through," Phil asked. "Come on, let's get you close to the fire… Ranboo?"

Despite the relatively short distance, the half-Enderman teleported over to Philza, appearing underneath Tubbo's other arm. They carried him over to the fireplace while Technoblade fetched a blanket and a warm drink from his cottage.

When he tried to give the cup to Tubbo though, the boy refused until Techno accepted a crumpled bit of paper he fished out of the pocket of his parka.

"I… I didn't get lost. I just had to finish," Tubbo explained. "and I didn't think I could make it back."

"It's good that you called us," Philza reassured him, rubbing Tubbo's shoulders reassuringly, both to comfort him and encourage more blood flow and reduce the chance frostbite would set in.

Technoblade took the scrap of paper and unfolded it. He walked over to the wall facing the large meeting table in the centre of the room and placed the map into the final item frame in the bottom corner.

"That's it then…" Ranboo muttered, leaning back against the table as he took in the 10x20 block map. "Wherever Dream took Tommy, it was extremely far away."

"shhhh!" Philza admonished. "Tubbo, you did a magnificent job, we're one step closer to finding Tommy now..."

"No. We're not," Tubbo responded, deadpan as he'd be if Technoblade hadn't found him. "All we did is find out what we always knew… that Tommy… he's..."

Whatever Tubbo was going to say got lost behind a chorus of hiccupping sobs. Philza made comforting shushing noises and pulled the ram-lamb into a tight hug.

"I... I'm so sorry, Tubbo…" Ranboo apologized, his hands shaking from the wave of anxiety that gripped him. Technoblade stepped in and tossed his cloak over Ranboo's shoulders.

"It is what it is," Techno proclaimed loudly. "We tried this method first because it was the easiest, but we have other options…"

"Like what?" Tubbo spluttered. He tried to wipe away his tears with the sleeve of his jacket but got snow in his eyes instead.

"Here, let's get that off you..." Philza cut in. He unzipped Tubbo's parka and pulled it off by the shoulders.

A small black box fell out of the chest pocket on Tubbo's shirt and landed in his lap. "Oh, my phone…" Tubbo hiccupped, "I put it there so the cold wouldn't drain the batter.."

Tubbo trailed off as he picked up his phone and saw the notification on his lock screen.

**"TOMMY MESSAGED ME!"**

"What?"

"What?"

"What?"

"Heeeuh?"

"Tommy messaged me!" Tubbo repeated, even though everyone had heard him.

"Are you sure it's him?" Ranboo asked, already suspicious.

Tubbo nodded and read the message out loud. "Hey Tubzo! Sorry I couldn't respond sooner my phone got a little fucked by lightning and also Dream is a bitch."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's him!" Tubbo asserted.

"Well, what are you waiting for! Ask him where he is!" Technoblade roared.

"Right! Right! Sorry!"

Tubbo quickly shot back responses, hardly waiting to finish more than two words before hitting send. Tommy started typing out a reply and Tubbo held his breath.

"What's he saying?" Ranboo asked.

"He's typing."

All four members of the search party huddled up around Tubbo. Watching as the boy franticly messaged his friend until the reply came through.

 **Tommy Today at 21:13** Sorry, Dream was talking and my life kinda hangs on me being on his good side right now. I've got good news and bad news, the good news is that I know exactly where I am. The bad news is that it's a little far away?

 **Tubbo Today at 21:13** How far?

 **Tommy Today at 21:15** Hang on, let me double-check my co-ords. it is a lot of numbers so sit tight.

 **Tommy Today at 21:30** XYZ: 29999103.234 / 120.64475 / 29999145.675

"Fuck," Technoblade muttered. The timing was worth sacrificing monetization for.

"We know where he is! This should be easy now!" Tubbo enthused. The surrounding three were glad that he couldn't see the shared apprehension on their faces.

"Yeah…" Technoblade responded, ruffling up Tubbo's hair with one paw. "You did good, Demeter."

"Thanks!" Tubbo responded. "But my name is Tubbo, not Demeter?"

"That's all a matter of perspective," Technoblade replied.

"No, but it actually isn't?" 

* * *

Tommy stirred in his sleep. He blinked once, then twice, slowly coming back to his senses. He hadn't actually meant to fall asleep in Dream's bed, but as he took in the soft blue light and the lime green curtains, he couldn't escape the fact that he obviously had.

It made little sense. Surely, he could never let his guard down around that monster… surely…

Tommy rolled over, then froze. There was something around his middle. He looked and saw that it was a massive green snake! No. Wait... it's attached to something. Tommy followed it with his eyes until the green thing merged with the lump behind him.

Dream… Dream had his arm around him. Tommy tried to push the arm away, only to discover Dream was holding something under him. Dream was holding a hand. Dream was holding his own hand… around Tommy.

They were cuddling.

Cuddling!

And worst of all…

_He was the little spoon._

Tommy lay there fuming for a few minutes. Cursing himself for letting his guard down. No wonder he had fallen asleep with Dream practically swaddling him while wearing that oversized blanket he called a sweatshirt. Anyone would fall asleep when they were _that_ comfortable…

Wait. 'Anyone' included Dream.

Tommy listened for Dream's breathing and found it was coming slowly. It was also a little weird that he hadn't started talking yet. Usually, Dream wouldn't miss out on an opportunity to rub something like this in.

Carefully, like he was a terrible archaeologist trying to rob an ancient temple while causing as much damage to priceless historic sights as possible, Tommy inched his way out of Dream's arms and replaced his middle with a pillow.

He stood over the bed for a good few minutes, too scared to make a sound or even breath too hard. Once he felt confident that Dream wasn't about to sit up and stare him dead in the eyes like The Undertaker, Tommy turned to the wall nearest his side of the bed.

He looked over the item frames proudly displayed on the wall. They were all there. All of Dream's most precious weapons. Nightmare, the axe and the sword; Dreamrider, the trident; a crossbow to replace the one he had lost, still named _'not a penis_ ' for clarity.

With trembling hands Tommy pulled them from the wall, holding his breath each time he accidentally made some small sound.

There was still a single arrow loaded in the crossbow. Tommy tested the draw with one finger, finding it properly tight. He pointed it at Dream, imagining how satisfying it would be to pull the trigger.

It wasn't worth it though. Not when he would deprive himself of one of his own lives. It was just possible that despite all the speculation, Dream actually only had three like the rest of them. Taking one now would mean they would both be on their last chance.

Tommy looked longingly at the armour stand on his way out. It would take too long and be far too loud to take any of it, but he wanted too so, so badly.

He glanced between the stand and Dream, once, then twice. Maybe… maybe he could just take the helm?

Tommy pulled himself up onto his tip-toes and grabbed the helm with both hands, carefully lifting it from the stand.

**CLANK**

He gasped and looked to see one of the two bracers had fallen to the floor. Tommy held still, holding his breath until...

"Tommy?"

Dream pushed himself up on one arm. His mask slipped sideways while he was sleeping, leaving one emerald eye visible.

"What are you doing?"

Tommy slammed the helm onto his head and took off like a bat out of Hades. He bolted through the doorway across the hall from Dream's room and out into the night. Somehow, he hadn't noticed it was raining until he was out in the thick of it. The roar of thunder echoed over the horizon, giving Tommy rough flashbacks to the night that this had all started.

He bolted for the stables, his bare feet splashing in the mud as he ran. The scars along his back tingled as if they were responding to the electricity in the air.

Dimly, Tommy could feel the swoosh across his lower back. Striking from his left hip to the right like a stroke of a paintbrush, resting under two points where the Lindenberg figure ended.

Dream's mark.

**: )**

"No, NO! **FUCK YOU!** " Tommy screamed out into the night, as if he was cursing the gods themselves. "I won't! I won't do it! I'm my own person! I don't belong to anyone! Especially not **HIM!** "

Above, a bolt forked through the sky, followed by a rumble that was growing ever closer, closing around him like a net.

Tommy found Alastor first and jumped on its back. He didn't have time to find the saddle. He wrapped his arms around Alastor's neck and panted out, "Go! Please!"

Alastor seemed to understand and bolted from the stable, leaving the door swinging on its hinges behind him.


	4. Oblivion Awaits

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to monsterritory for the illustrations, and for making sad puppy eyes at me until I got this chapter done. 
> 
> [Tumblr](https://monsterritory.tumblr.com/)  
> [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/monsterritory/)

Tommy could barely keep his eyes open against the torrent pouring down from above, depending completely on Alastor to find their way through this.

While Tommy was glad that skeleton horses didn’t need food or rest, he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t have traded for a flesh and blood horse if he had the chance, not just to relieve the pain in his backside from riding on a collection of vertebrae, but also for the warmth a living creature provided.

He’d hardly escaped the shadow of the temple before he started shivering from the cold. Tommy had asked Technoblade once why deserts got so cool at night, then instantly regretted it as a piglin hybrid launched into a lengthy diatribe about humidity and the thermophysical properties of water. In the end, Tommy’s only take away was that it ‘got cold because deserts were empty’.

His mind didn’t stay on his discomfort very long, however, for while Tommy had hoped the thundering sounds that were slowly gaining on him was thunder, the closer it got, the harder it was to deny he was hearing hoofbeats.

Shielding his eyes with one hand, Tommy glimpsed lime green among the murky blacks and greys. Somehow, Dream had already donned all the pieces of his armour and properly saddled up another of his four horses.

One day Tommy would learn to stop trying to outrun a world-record holding speed-runner, but today clearly wasn’t that day.

“Come on, come on, Alastor, please!” Tommy begged, squeezing the skFtheyeleton horse’s vertebrae between his thighs.

Alastor lowered its skull, leaning into the gallop. All four legs moving in perfect sync to propel them forward.

A flaming arrow pierced the air inches above Tommy’s head, leaving behind a glowing after-image that seared itself into the teenager’s vision.

Dream rarely missed more than once or twice before he had gathered enough data on the situation to aim for a bullseye. (as Tommy had learned all too well in his ill-fated dule with the man.)

If he was taking shots, then sooner rather than later, one would hit home. An unwelcome but familiar voice in the back of Tommy’s mind mused that if he were on fire, it would warm him up for a bit.

A second shot barely grazed Tommy’s cheek. The flames lit up the surrounding area just enough to glimpse the sunken face of a husk before the arrow pierced a hole through it and left the reanimated corpse to burn on the sand.

A volley of arrows followed, each flash of light revealing another husk wandering the empty planes of Hades.

Tommy gritted his teeth, forcing himself to sit up so he could turn and scream at Dream.

“Stop it! I don’t need your help!”

His cry went unanswered as Dream picked off more mobs. They were both going top speed, but eventually, Dream would catch up. The gap was just too small for Tommy to pull away… unless…

Unless…

The scars on Tommy’s back prickled, reacting to the electricity in the air, both manifest and metaphorical.

A brief break in the clouds allowed a sliver of moonlight to envelope the desert, giving Tommy just enough visibility to find a dune that wasn’t swarming with husks. He tugged on Alastor’s clavicle and the horse turned towards it.

Alastor slowed to accomplish the climb up the dune. Once they reached the top, Tommy slid off its bony back without waiting for a stop. His inner thighs screamed about the fresh bruises, but Tommy had no time for anything that wasn’t life threatening.

He pulled Nightmare from his inventory and held it out in front of him. He brandished it less like a weapon and more like a talisman he was using to ward off a demon.

Seeing that his quarry had stopped, Dream approached the dune at a lackadaisical pace, as if he were simply pulling over to check on a stranded traveller.

“Tommy~” he called, using the tone that always reminded the teenager of how people talked to feral kittens. “You shouldn’t be out here on your own at night, especially not in the rain.”

Dream dismounted his horse and tucked his bow into the holster over his shoulder.

“Look at you. You’re shivering.”

“No, I’m not!” Tommy insisted, visibly shivering with the cold and fear.

Tommy planted his feet shoulder length apart and raised nightmare over his right shoulder, preparing to put his all into his first strike.

Dream held out a hand and his horse, whom Tommy recognized as Nyctaeus, stepped forward to receive a pat on the nose.

“Tommy, it’s cold, it’s dark, can’t we just forget all this and go home?”

“Never!”

Dream sighed and took two steps toward Tommy. As close as he could get while staying out of Axe range.

“Listen, I know you feel you have the upper hand because you stole my weapons, but do you really think those are one-of-a-kind? Why would I risk only having one set of anything?”

Dream held out a hand and cycled through his hot bar. He had a netherite axe, a sword, a crossbow, and a trident, all enchanted.

He settled on the axe and tossed it toward Tommy, before producing another identical one from his inventory to hold instead.

“Have a look for yourself.”

Not taking his eyes off dream, Tommy kneeled to pick up the axe. He held one in each hand, seeing that they were indeed identical. He looked up to see Dream also holding an axe in both hands.

“You can keep those. It really doesn’t matter to me. Just come back to bed? We can pretend like none of this ever happened.”

“Really?” Tommy asked, hope lighting a match inside his chest before he snuffed the flame out. “No. No, you’re lying. You’ve got something planned, haven’t you? The moment my guard is down you’ll.. you’ll…”

Dream nodded his head, like he had expected that answer. “I understand why you think that Tommy.” Dream closed his eyes and looked up at the pouring rain, a deep sigh passing his lips.

“Tommy, I’m sorry.”

“Wh-what?”

Tommy felt like he should have been more venom in his ‘what’ but all he could do was blurt the word.

“I’m sorry. For the way I treated you in exile… and before that…”

“No, you’re not!

“I am.”

Tommy gripped the handles of the twin nightmares until his knuckles turned white. He could stand here arguing ‘Dream said, Tommy said,’ for ages and get no closer to solving the argument.

“If you’re so sorry, then tell me what you’re sorry for,” Tommy countered. It was one thing for Dream to put his ego aside enough to say sorry, but if he actually meant it, then he could explain in his own words.

“I’m sorry that I hurt you. I’m sorry that I defaulted to violence because I wasn’t smart enough to come up with better solutions. I’m sorry that it took me so long to see you as anything more than an annoyance I needed to crush.”

“S-so what? I don’t care that you’re sorry! You still did all those things! The entire time I’ve known you Dream, you’ve caused me nothing but pain!”

“That is not true. What about when I let you borrow my trident and I taught you how to fly? Or when we spent the day building a bridge in the nether and I helped you gather the blocks? Or when you roasted me about losing my world record? Or that time my pants glitched out, and it looked like I was naked-”

“You were naked!” Tommy snapped back, falling easily back into old familiar arguments.

“It was a visual glitch!” Dream retorted, a laugh sneaking its way into his words as they both reminisced. “I let you borrow my tools to build your towers and dig holes, I watched over you to make sure you didn’t get hurt. In exile, I visited every day to check up on you. Even when I was at my worst, I still cared about you.”

“S-So?!” Tommy snapped, “Just because there were good times.. just because you made me… made me laugh. That doesn’t make up for all the misery and the… the abuse!”

Dream tucked his axes away and pulled off his netherite helmet. Soaked to the bone, probably worse than Tommy because of his heavy clothing. “That’s why I need you to stay with me. I want to make it better. I want to be better.”

Tommy couldn’t help laughing, the sight of Dream standing before him with his helmet in his hands getting as close as he could to looking pathetic, dragged it out of him.

“Tigers don’t change their spots, Dream… Wait, I think I’m thinking of leopards...”

Dream politely ignored Tommy’s rambling and stuck to his point. “Look, what matters is I’m trying Tommy, and so far, I’ve succeeded. Think about it, I haven’t punished you for anything since I brought you here.”

“Y-yes you have!” Tommy spluttered, “You-you... No, wait… but then there was-! but we were sparring… but… but..”

Tommy frantically thought through the last few days. He had been so scared the entire time, but he coudent point at any single moment when

“Fuck you!” Tommy roared, defaulting to insults.

“Tommy, let’s just go home.” Dream pleaded, holding out an empty hand. “If you want to finish this escape attempt, you can do it tomorrow.”

Tommy looked down at the weapons in his hands. A moment ago they had seemed like his ticket to freedom, but now they were just two unusually sharp toothpicks he was hoping to fight off the king of the underworld with.

“I-if I go with you… you won’t punish me? You won’t make me give up my things, or hit me, or… or..”

“I promise,” Dream purred. He crossed the forbidden space between them and reached out to touch Tommy’s cheek. “I’ve learned my lesson, Tommy. I tried my best to crush you, but all I did was turn you into a diamond.”

Tommy’s first thought was to slap the hand away from himself, but he couldn’t bring himself to it. He didn’t know just how touch starved he was until he felt a warm hand on his cheek. Dream was his only source of warmth in the middle of this cold and desolate desert, if he wanted to admit it or not. The two axes hit the ground and the next thing he knew he was being lifted into the air and carried back towards the properly saddled horse.

“I’m so tired,” Tommy breathed into Dream’s neck.

“We’ll be home soon.” Dream replied as he grasped the reigns under Tommy’s body and kicked his horse into motion, trusting Alistor to follow behind.

“That isn’t my home..” Tommy insisted.

“It could be if you give it a chance..”

* * *

Everything that happened after that blurred together in Tommy’s mind. He briefly remembered a steaming pool of warm water, a fluffy towel and a host of blankets wrapping him up like a cocoon. He had refused to let himself dwell on who was offering the source of comfort so he could absorb as much of it as possible. To the point Tommy had refused to look at the man who carried him all the way and set him down on their- no, on his bed again.

Dream laid down beside him, letting a sigh of relief escape his lips as everything has once again returned to normal. Everything that Dream needed was exactly where Dream needed it to be once again.

Tommy remained in his sitting position, throwing a blanket over his head as he stared into the doorway. So close to freedom, yet so far from it. As if held back by invisible chains. The boy’s wandering gaze returned to the man beside him.

“Why are you doing this to me?” He asked in a whisper.

Whether Dream was asleep, Tommy didn’t actually want an answer.

Eventually he grew too tired to keep sitting up. Tommy figured this night couldn’t have gotten worse anyway. He lowered his guard and laid down, drifting to sleep for the rest of the stormy night.

A sleepless hand wrapped around him when he was fast asleep.

* * *

When Tommy returned to consciousness, he had a moment of comfortable bliss before remembering the events of the night before. He flinched out of bed, moving away before he turned to see that the space beside him in bed was empty.

He poked his head through the lime green curtains and saw the sun inching toward the horizon through the open back door of the temple. He rubbed his eyes and groaned; the sound echoing off the close marble walls.

“How long was I asleep?”

No answer came. Tommy squinted at the sun, trying to remember what Techno had said about what horison the sun set on. It was probably safe to assume it was late afternoon just from the stiffness in his body.

Tommy sat up, noticing that he wasn’t wearing his usual loose attire, instead he was wearing an oversized green hoodie with a black smiley face drawn across the abdomen.

Tommy hissed through his teeth and tried to rip the offending article off his body until he remembered that he’d gotten soaked through to his underwear and had stripped it all off in favour of a warm bath.

He gulped and pressed the hem down over his thighs, comparing the length to the length of the skirts the girls at college wore and trying to estimate how much movement it could tolerate before he showed off something he would rather not.

“Dream!”

The sound of claws scraping over marble met his cry and Cerberus part 3 rounded the corner and pranced happily up to the bed. They jumped up into Tommy’s lap and started licking his face, getting dog saliva all over in their excitement.

“Whoa, whoa, down boy! Down! Ugh… your breath smells… down!”

Tommy wiggled away from part of Cerberus and noticed something attached to the dog’s collar with a ribbon. Cerberus sat and moved its head, letting Tommy untie the green ribbon and tear open the envelope.

‘We cordially invite you to an afternoon tea in the garden. Come whenever you wake up :) ’

Tommy scowled at it. “Garden? What garden?”

As if responding to his question, Cerberus part 3 hopped off the bed and ran over to the door, barking excitedly.

“What’s the matter, boy? Did Dream fall down a well? Good. I’m going back to bed.”

Tommy grabbed the bedding and pulled it over his head, curling up into a ball under the sheets. Cerberus part 3 whined and padded back over, jumping on top of the Tommy lump and barking. The commotion brought the other two parts, and soon all of Cerberus was whining and pawing at Tommy.

“Fine! Fine! I’m up, im up! Jesus…”

Tommy groaned and rolled out of bed. The three dogs ran for the door and looked at him expectantly with 6 matching eyes. Tommy followed them reluctantly, rounding the corner and heading down the stairs to the area below the temple.

Tommy tried to make a slight detour to his room to see about finding some pants, but Cerberus parts 2 and 1 had fallen behind him and started growling the moment they saw him trying to backtrack.

They led him through what had been a large empty chamber underneath Dream’s throne room. The bright light forced Tommy to squint until his eyes adjusted. It was just as bright in here as it was outside, and soon Tommy saw why. Dream transformed the space into a massive greenhouse with every kind of plant life, including things that usually only grew in the nether and on mooshroom islands.

Tommy walked in around the perimeter, glancing at each flower planted alone in their own perfect pot. Not a single yellow leaf or dead stem between them.

“Ah, you’re finally awake. I was wondering if you’d sleep all day. Not that I’d mind, of course. You’re welcome to stay in my bed for as long as you like…”

Tommy tensed. He could hear Dream but not see him… yet.

He followed along the edge of a line of leaves until his bare feet landed on something cool and soft. He looked down to see the verdant grass stretching out before him. It was like Dream had cut a narrow slice out of a grassy field and placed it down in the middle of his perfect palace.

Dream held a watering can in one hand, carefully pouring a soft stream of water around the tulips, careful to water the roots and not the flowers themselves.

Dream held up a finger in Tommy’s direction. “Just a moment, I’ve almost finished watering..”

Tommy frowned, but his attention had already moved on to the picnic blanket spread out over the grass and the large cake resting on a wooden block nearby. Tommy’s stomach growled loudly, just on cue. He sat himself down next to the cake. There was nothing around to serve it with, so Tommy shrugged, grabbed a handful, and shoved it into his mouth, cherries and all. He chewed happily, blissfully unaware of the tears of his English gentleman ancestors who could not believe their line had gone so far astray.

“I never really pictured you as much of a gardener, Dream,” Tommy mumbled around his mouthful of cake.

“I suspect you don’t picture me as much of anything, Tommy, aside from your mortal enemy,” Dream mused.

“Oh, sod off. I’m perfectly within my rights to not give a shit about you or your hobbies.”

“Then why did you just ask?”

Tommy nearly choked on his second handful of cake. “Shut up...”

Dream ignored that and went to go refill his can from the small pond in the corner of the grassy field.

“I find gardening relaxing,” Dream explained. “It’s the kinda hobby where you get out as much as you put in. Any plant will thrive if it’s put in a suitable environment and given love and attention.”

“Why do I feel that you’re not just talking about flowers..” Tommy glanced around, looking for something to drink. He checked the chest near the picnic blanket and found several bottles of fresh milk. He grinned as he popped the cork off the bottle on the side of the chest, the way most would open a bottle of beer. Mum was always on about how it would make his bones strong. No doubt he could use all the bone strength he could get right now.

“Because I’m not,” Dream agreed, the smile audible in his voice. He finished watering the rose bushes and left his can on the ground when he came to sit on the blanket beside Tommy. “I see you started without me.”

Tommy shrugged as he licked the icing off his fingers. “I was hungry.”

Dream nodded and opened the chest, pulling out a basket full of food and resting it on the blanket between them.

“See Tommy? You can understand me if you try. You’re intuitive like that.”

Dream uncorked a second bottle of milk and held it up. It took a second for Tommy to realize what he was driving at, then he moved to clink his own bottle against Dream’s before he considered if that was something he wanted to do.

Dream grinned and put his bottle down without drinking a sip. He reached out to a red tulip planted on his right and cupped the bulb in the palm of his hand.

“I used to think of this server as my private garden, a place where I could gather talented people all together in one spot and watch them grow… that as long as I kept a careful eye and provided a good environment, things would work out...”

Dream brushed his painted fingernails over the petals, enraptured by its softness.

“But then, one of my flowers turned into a weed… and by the time I noticed, it was already too late. The roots spread far and wide and when I tried to rip them out, they would sprout up somewhere else.”

Dream grabbed the stem of the tulip and yanked it out of the dirt, exposing the pale white roots and the remains of a bulb.

“But… that weed taught me a valuable lesson. It taught me that no matter how skilled the gardener, nature, life… Still has to have it’s way.”

Dream pinched the stem around the midway point and separated the flower from its roots.

“You taught me that, Tommy. You showed me that love isn’t just something people used to manipulate others. It’s a.. force like gravity and magnetism. Love compels otherwise logical men to cast themselves over the side of Theseus’s ship. Yet, despite the danger, you love freely and recklessly, you love with your whole heart, no matter how much you get hurt.”

Dream tucked the viciously mauled flower behind Tommy’s ear, arranging his hair to fall around it.

“Until I met you, I didn’t think love like that existed, never mind that I would feel it for you. Yet here I am, putting my lives on the line for you.”

Tommy shoved another handful of cake in his mouth. He was used to hearing long speeches from Dream that probably could have stood for more editing. It was best to keep quiet at moments like this. Dream would have his say in the end if he liked it or not.

“I’m not like you, Tommy. I can’t love recklessly. If I lose you, then I might never feel this way ever again, and I can’t go back to how it was before. All I wanted was for you to love me as much as I love you. You’re the one attachment I can’t cut, because without you I’m nothing.”

Dream wasn’t looking at him anymore. Instead, the server admin was staring down at his own hands as if he were reading the secrets of the universe on the back of his gloves. Until that moment Tommy assumed that this entire speech of Dream’s was a put on to garner his sympathies, but suddenly he wasn’t so sure anymore.

“That’s why I overreacted. That’s why I’ve been so cruel to you. Because this entire time I’ve been fighting to restore a power inbalance that you couldn’t even see.” Dream swallowed hard just as his voice cracked, giving him a moment to recover. “I felt… I felt threatened by you. You were right when you said I was, but only because I was afraid you’d realize what you mean to me and… I tried to crush you before you had the chance…”

Dream pulled in another deep breath and lifted his head, turning his mask toward the teen, as if that would give him any clues. Even Dream’s attempts at being open were cloaked in reservations.

“Sometimes I tried to hold back, see if I could win you over. In the brief gap between wars or when you werne causing to much trouble, but nothing I tried worked on you. I showered you with gifts, I took you under my wing, but you could barely say thanks, never mind feel any warmer to me for my efforts. Still, with the benefit of hindsight, I regret a lot of things. I made a bad call. I thought that if I applied enough friction, there would be a point where you would crack. I pitted an unstoppable force against an immovable object and was surprised when it blew up in my face...”

Dream laughed with no humour.

“I didn’t realize until I saw that dirt tower looming in the distance that I’d gone way too far. I’d thought all that staring into lava and sulking in the water was a ploy to make me feel sorry for you, I didn’t think…”

Tommy was at an utter loss for what to do. From his point of view all he’d done was get out of bed this morning, eat some cake for breakfast and suddenly Dream was spilling all the secrets he had held back for so long. Maybe Dream felt safe now that even Tommy’s best escape attempt had failed? Maybe he just woke up on the ‘spill your secrets’ side of the bed this morning. Or maybe he was also tired of fighting. It was impossible to know.

He needed more time to process this. To sort back through his memories with the context Dream had given… but for now, he needed to learn more. The thought of being the one to comfort Dream was weirdly exciting in a way. To think that the all-powerful admin of the server needed him for anything.

Tommy was tiring of sitting, so he laid down, resting his head in Dream’s lap.

Dream’s breath hitched and right away his hand rested on Tommy’s head. The soft petting motion giving him enough calm to feel comfortable continuing to talk.

“My first thought before I realized you had landed in the water was ‘I fucked up.’

Dream’s petting stopped and Tommy looked up to see the unblinking stare fixed on him.

“Dream….?”

Dream pushed his mask up just enough so he could lean down and press a soft kiss to Tommy’s forehead. Tommy flushed, but didn’t pull away.

“If you realized you were wrong…” Tommy began, choosing his words carefully in hope he would get a truthful answer. “Why did you keep going? Why did you blow up L’Manberg?”

“Because the plan changed…” Dream admitted with a sigh. “You scared the absolute shit out of me, Tommy. I had to regroup once I knew that I’d overplayed my hand. I thought Id cut myself off from anything that would be used to hurt me, but in a single instant you proved me wrong. I would never be in full control as long as I still hand this unbreakable attachment to you. So I repurposed something I had planned. You saw it on the ride over with Technoblade…”

“The Prison?” Tommy gasped, moving to sit up before Dream pulled him back down.

“Exactly... It’s impossible to get out, but it’s also just as Impossible for anyone to get in. You would have been safe forever behind those walls. Locked in my personal Pandora’s box.”

Dream sighed wistfully, reminiscing on Tommy’s narrowly avoided lifetime of imprisonment the way most did over childhood Christmases.

“But… you weren’t destined to be Pandora, now were you?” Dream added with a soft chuckle.

“My plan was to take away everything you cared about besides the discs and… another thing… Then when you came after me, I’d threaten the destruction of one or both of the last things you cared about to force you to come with me to the prison… but then you got hit by a FUCKING LIGHTING BOLT OUT OF NOWHERE and I has to rethink everything again.”

Tommy flinched at Dream’s Sudden outburst and would have pulled away if Dream hadn’t grabbed his shoulders and held him still.

“but, but, but, this time I was prepared, I had a way to bring you back to life tucked up my sleeve. Just in case you slipped through my fingers again…”

Tommy glanced around the garden, at all the plants tucked perfectly into their spaces. If Dream had his way, the whole server would have been like this.

“I still don’t understand… how come you didn’t tell me you fancied me from the start?”

Dream snorted out a laugh. “Of course that’s what you would ask. See that’s what I love so much about you Tommy, you’re so… simple..”

Tommy flushed crimson and twisted his shoulders out of Dream’s grasp, rolling off his lap and springing to his feet.

“What the actual fuck dream! All the shit I went though, all the pain and isolation. That was all just because you feared being rejected?”

Dream looked down at his lap, as if it surprised him Tommy was no longer in it. He looked up at the fuming teenager and shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah.”

“I’m leaving.”

Tommy was aiming for a brisk martch but after about two steps he lost his nerve and sprinted. He made it out into the long column-lined hallway and hung a right.

Dream had added ‘windows’ to the underground area, half backed by lava and the other half by water. Tommy hung another right then right again, leading him right... back where he had started.

Four right turns is a circle, isn’t it?

Dream looked up from examining a small chip in his black fingernail polish and smiled at Tommy. The one on his lips blended in with the one on his pushed up mask, giving them the impression of a creature with two sets of hungry mouths, poised to devour the nearest prey.

“Tommy. Sit still for a moment. I’m almost done talking.”

Tommy felt his knees buckle. Personally, he blamed it on the fact he hadn’t stretched before going on his unintentional 400 meter dash around the temple, but the timing was admittedly rather poor.

Dream took advantage without skipping a beat, appearing in front of Tommy and gently cupping the teenager’s face in both his hands.

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes over the last few months, but, I made them out of love, not malice. I’m not trying to excuse my actions, only explain them so that we can stop hurting one another, and so that maybe, one day, you might forgive me?”

Tommy scoffed and rolled his eyes. If Dream really thought all it would take was his assurance that he had changed, then he was truly operating with negative IQ points.

“Not now. Not soon,” Dream added, taking Tommy’s incredulity as his just deserts. “-but one day, perhaps? And until then, I want you to stay here with me. Where you’ll be safe, protected, loved…”

Dream let go and took a small step back. “I think I’m supposed to be the one on my knees for this, but our relationship has never gone the way it’s supposed to, has it?”

Tommy closed his eyes the moment he saw Dream’s hand come back out of his jean pocket holding a ring-box.

“Put that back,” Tommy snapped. “My answer is no and it will always be no.”

Tommy braced for a biting remark or a slap across the face… but when he opened one eye to peek, all he saw was Dream offering him a hand up. The awkwardness in the air lingering as Dream helped Tommy up.

“You know.. I’m missing when you were abusing me on the regular. At least then it was easy to hate you.”

Dream shrugged his shoulders and pulled his mask back down over his mouth.

“I want to go home, Dream.”

“This is your home.”

Tommy winced and crossed his arms over his chest, hugging himself tightly.

“No, it’s really, really not. My home is… my home…”

Tommy closed his eyes, trying to picture it in his mind so that he could explain why it was better than here, but instead of the small densely knit community that has risen from the ashes time and time again, all he could see was a vast crater stretching out to the very ends of the depths.

“L’manberg’s gone, Tommy.”

Tommy gasped and choked on what had almost come out as a sob. He buried his face in his hands, as if he could manually push the tears back into his eyes.

“But… it’s not just L’manberg what about..”

“We can go on trips.” Dream suggested, “I can take you to visit someone if you miss them, just tell me who…”

Tommy pushed back the looming despair and latched onto the thin thread of hope Dream had offered.

“Yes! YES! I want to go! I want to see…” Tommy trailed off. He had so many good friends that he dearly missed, it would be hard to pick who to see first. He reached for his mental address book and opened it… only to find that he suddenly couldn’t read any of the text.

He had people; he knew he did. He could see them standing around him in the rain, torn from their life or death conflict to mourn what they had thought was the loss of his last life. He could see them, down to their faces and the clothing they wore, but no matter how deep he dug, he couldn’t attach a single letter of their names to their faces.

“I-I-I can’t, I can’t.. I can’t remember...”

Tears were flowing hot and fast now, but in contrast to his moment of destress before, Tommy didn’t gasp or blubber, instead the pain swelled inside him like a wave at high tide. The rivulets running down his cheeks were the natural result of overflowing the dam.

“What did you do to me?” Tommy asked. The wellspring of despondency inside him crowded out anger, fear, hope, leaving only a mild sense of curiosity.

Tommy wasn’t aware he had leaned too far to one side and was falling until after Dream had caught him and scooped him up into his arms.

“Shhhh… Shhh... Don’t strain yourself. You’re so pale… Tommy, what’s wrong?”

Tommy stared at Dream through the foggy haze of his tears. He… he sounded scared? That was strange. Dream was a pretty good liar, but he usually relied on his words to convince his audience, not his tone. Especially if it meant showing a moment of weakness.

Perhaps…

Perhaps dream really had nothing to do with this?

“I don’t know…” Tommy whispered. He turned his face towards Dream’s collar, not caring in the least if his tears and snot stained the fabric.

“I think maybe you should lie down for a bit,” Dream said as he rubbed Tommy’s shoulders. He carried the teenager down two of the hallways to the room Dream had set up for him.

It was simple and spacious, though another two words to describe it could have been plain and empty. Dream broke away from his dominant colour pallet of green, black and white, introducing hints of red and even blue. He wanted this room to be a refuge for Tommy until he could encourage the teen to start builds of his own again.

Admittedly, the bars on the windows were probably a poor choice if he didn’t want it to feel like a jail cell, but when he had built this room, it was a backup for a much more imposing prison.

Dream lowered Tommy to the bed and passed him a pillow. Tommy took it and clutched it to his chest, hiding his face behind it.

He stayed to watch the sunset through the iron bars, checking on Tommy out of the corner of his eye since the boy was still silent with his anguish. Dream had to wonder if Tommy was silencing himself out of pride, but that theory, like Tommy, didn’t hold water.

“Tommy... when you were out riding, you didn’t stop to drink anything.. Did you?” Dream asked.

“Mmm.. yeah..” Tommy replied, his eyes focusing on Dream for a moment before they clouded over again. “The fountain.. The one in the gazebo… L-something..”

“Lethe,” Dream supplied. Tommy nodded and closed his eyes again.

“I see..”

Dream turned to leave.

“D-Dream wait!” Tommy called after him, sitting bolt upright in bed. “I-I remember someone! He was my best friend. He had blond hair and blue eyes like mine, and, and I had this compass that would always point me back to him, and…”

“Hush..” Dream purred, slinking back over with the alacrity usually reserved for those of the feline persuasion. “I think you’ve just had a little too much excitement for one day. Sleep. You’ll feel better tomorrow.”

* * *

“Okay, that’s 25 stacks of Steak, 10 stacks of Hay bales, 40 stacks of potta-”

Ranboo looked up from his logbook to find Tubbo crouched on the floor, scratching at his ears with his hind hoof.

“Uh… Tubbo?”

“Sorry!” Tubbo chirped, slowly lowering the offending hoof. “My ears got weirdly hot and burny and then they started itching.”

“Oh… well, that’s not good. Here, let me look…”

Ranboo put his book down and went over to examine Tubbo’s ears. Tubbo held still for about ten seconds before getting restless and bounding away.

“I’m okay. It was only for a minute,” Tubbo reassured him as he settled on one of the many double chests packed tightly into Technoblade’s basement.

Ranboo took Tubbo’s word on it and went back to double checking the supplies.

“You know..” Ranboo said after a few moments of silence. “They say when your ears burn it means someone is thinking about you.”

“Really?! Is that true?”

“Well, I mean, not really, it’s just a saying.”

“Oh.”

Tubbo started kicking his hooves off the side of the chest.

“I bet it was Tommy! Only if it was, my ears would burn way more than that.”

Ranboo swallowed the growing lump in his throat and nodded. “Has he messaged you?”

“Not in a while. He seemed in high spirits, though. Given the circumstances..”

“Yeah…”

“Do you think he’s okay?”

Ranboo’s quill froze mid-stroke. That was the question he had been dreading.

“If by okay you mean physically… then yeah. I’m sure he’s safe, and warm, and probably a lot cleaner than he usually is since Dream would force him to take baths.”

To Ranboo’s relief, Tubbo laughed at that.

“Oh, most definitely. Not a chocolate stain in sight, I reckon.”

The silence crept back in around them, laying thick on top of everything and muffling it, like the snow outside.

“I miss him.”

“.... yeah, me too.”


End file.
